Essays in Agricultural and Development Economics

Various low- and middle-income countries deal with climate change and structural. Structural transformation is the reallocation of resources across the broad sectors of the economy. When income per capita grows, structural transformation is associated with labor moving away from agriculture and into manufacturing and services and with higher urbanization rates. However, a significant share of the labor force remains in subsistence agriculture in rural areas. With rising global temperatures and climate variability, subsistence farmers are particularly vulnerable to climate hazards due to a lack of access to coping mechanisms such as insurance or credit. At the same time, populations surrounding natural resource extraction sites often face economic opportunities but encounter risks from pollution.This dissertation studies the impact of weather shocks on subsistence farming in Nigeria and the community-level effects of industrial mining activity in Peru. The first chapter examines the impact of high temperature on total factor productivity at the farm level in Nigeria by combining nationally representative panel household surveys with satellite weather data. The second chapter studies how farmers adapt input use, crop mix, off-farm labor, and livestock sales in response to extreme heat in Nigerian subsistence farming. The third chapter estimates the impact of industrial mining activity on income, health, and subsistence farming in Peru. It uses a database linking nationally representative household and farm surveys with information on the activity of all industrial mining sites in the country. The findings show that high temperatures adversely impact small-scale farms in Nigeria and industrial mining activity increases the income of low-skilled workers in Peru. Extreme heat decreases agricultural productivity in Nigeria, and farmers attenuate this shock by increasing the area planted and changing crop mix. In Peru, industrial mining activity increases the real income of low-skilled workers. The dissertation provides two implications. First, policy instruments that address adverse shocks to agricultural income need to adapt to the rising frequency and duration of heat waves in Nigeria. Second, implementing policies that facilitate backward linkages in industrial mining can increase real household incomes in the vicinities of industrial mines.